Saturday 9 November 2013

Amigurumi....ah'ma gonna struggle more like.....!

I enjoy crochet and am loving all the amigurumi work I am seeing around the internet. According to Wikipedia amigurumi is the Japanese trend of making small stuffed animals and items with anthropomorphic features. It is usually made with a smaller gauge crochet hook to create a tighter more compacted piece which wont allow the stuffing to show through.

I've seen a lovely little Minion design that I thought was very witty and cute but I am struggling with the pattern for a few reasons.

1. I've never followed a crochet pattern. I was taught  by my Nana and she was a 'by eye' crafter so I have always been used to looking at things and deducting how it should be shaped. Being reductionist about it, all crocheting and knitting boils down to starting with the number of stitches needed and increasing or decreasing as needed to shape before casting off. All fair and well and it is a logic skill I've translated to a lot of work or home challenges but if there is a pattern then surely it is quicker to do this than spend time rethinking it.
2. Crochet patterns come in American and UK versions...(who knew, at least I didn't) and each has different names for the stitches.
3. Because I learned aged around 5yrs old I watched, learned and copied so none of my crochet stitches, apart from the chain, have any names whatsoever. This means I am on a hiding to nothing as neither a UK or US pattern makes any sense. 

I've tried working it out using the fabulous google and youtube and some great bloggers I read who provide tutorials but somehow it is not sticking in my head. I think the issue is because my crochet style of learning is predominantly 'see one, do one' then I probably need to get a clever person to do me a tutorial so that I can put a name/s to a stitch visually while creating it.

This is my shameful skelly attempt at crocheting after many, many years absence. Just for info that is meant to be a granny SQUARE!

10 comments:

  1. I can actually see it is a granny square, maybe youtube is really where you need to concentrate. You can see it and do it.
    Hugs to you and good luck, it will get a lot easier.
    Meredith

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  2. Don't give up! I recommend YouTube...I learned how to crochet last year by watching YouTube tutorials over and over again until it clicked! Drove my husband crazy mind you!!
    Thank you for joining in the Christmas swap. You have been paired with the blog Jessie's Needle - more details and links etc on my blog. Happy swapping!
    Marianne x

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  3. Hang in there, it sounds like you can already do all the stitches, you just need help decoding the patterns. A good book, or you tube, will help you lots. Good luck! x

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  4. Hi, Ladybird Diaries has pair us for the Christmas swap. You can contact me at jessiesNeedle@gmail.com.

    I teach crochet, so don't give up, you can ask me to assist.

    S xx

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    Replies
    1. I'm absolutely delighted to be partnered with you and really looking forward to getting my idea from my head to reality then to you.

      How fab too to be partnered with a crochet teacher...I hope you wont be sorry you offered your help,,,lol

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  5. Hello! Thank you for your nice comment on my blog. Did you know that you are a "no-reply blogger" so I couldn't reply personally. In case this wasn't by choice you can add an email address to your Blogger profile - that means that if you comment, people can reply straight back to you!

    I wish I could crochet something that was even remotely like a granny square - I will have to learn!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for pointing this out Catherine. I 'think' I've sorted this but let me know if it hasn't worked.

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  6. Woohoo! You have added pics to your blog! Great job!

    And nope, it's not a denim sofa.... It has denim slip-cover on it though, however it is white under it.

    Ps: I am made something like that! It was for my cat, she looks adorable in it! But it was blue.

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  7. Ps: I added myself to your Google Friend/ followers thing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If you would like to follow this AWESOME person (AKA Myself, LOL!)
    Then go to my blog. Go to the right hand side, and you see something called "Google Friend" or something like that. And hit "Join this site" and it will say "Congrats, you are now following this site" and then just hit "done"

    And you're done!

    H&K

    ReplyDelete

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